Party Animals is one of the titles that regularly crops up during my friends and I’s game nights. Much like Gang Beasts before it, Party Animals is a floppy, comedic party game where a bunch of animals throw hands on increasingly ludicrous arenas, like a submarine that begins to descend into the ocean, or a bomber jet that tilts in either direction to shake combatants off. My absolute favorite of the bunch pits teams against one another on a circular stage with a black hole generator in its center. Every minute or so, the whole lobby begins to get pulled into the void with more and more ferocity, sending players flailing for something to cling to or someone to knock out and leave to the whims of the black hole.
In case you couldn’t tell, Party Animals is a silly and enormously good time. There are typical last man standing matches, but there are also maps and modes that complicate matters in outstanding ways. One mode, for example, asks teams to retrieve objectives to bring back to their own bases to score, and another map even sticks teams on their own trains, where they can then jump between cars, take out enemies, and pull on their brakes, all the while throwing coal in the furnace of their own in order to speed up. That’s just scratching the surface of Party Animals too. Our new favorite pastime over the last several months has been entering a lodge in a private match and playing the most intense games of Uno against each other. One of my favorite nights in recent memory involves several children invading our lobby, talking shit to one another, and trolling us during an intense card game before eventually emptying out because of their own curfews. Party Animals is on Game Pass, but you should pick it up while it’s discounted to $10.
